Of all the
social/economic/political issues out there, ENERGY
has been the one that’s captivated me the most
-- ever since hearing a lecture by the brilliant
and energy-wise Amory Lovins in the early 80’s.

And of all the greed-motivated energy systems
and policies we have, nuclear power is a most
egregious scam. Set aside, for the moment, the
environmental implications of radioactive
material, the economics of this technology are a
fiasco. The fact that NO private investment
dollars have gone into nuclear power in the U.S.
since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 is
a clue. This is not to say that someone isn’t
getting rich off of these plants. They are! They
build them with our tax dollars, then charge us
for the electricity! Hmmm. And you can bet that
cleanups and perpetual storage expenses will be
on our tab, as well.

Now….our public money could be funding
conservation and renewables instead, but the
current Energy Suppliers have convinced us (or
our reps in D.C.) that alternatives couldn’t
possibly generate any significant percentage of
our needs. This is simply NOT true. Look at what
Germany has accomplished in the last couple of
decades.

The problem is not technological
limitations….the problem is greed. Alternatives
- like solar, wind, micro-hydro and smart grids
- open up the door to decentralized power
generation. This is NOT what the Energy Lords
want to see. They can’t control mini power
plants spread out all over the place – on our
roofs, in our streams, under the hood of our
electric cars. And reducing consumption….well,
that’s just plain un-patriotic!

So, when the tsunami hit Fukushima and their
reactors spiraled out of control, I researched,
and grew more outraged with each fact uncovered.
For instance: power plants have a design
lifespan of about 30 years, and yet the
40-year-old Fukushima facility had recently been
granted a license renewal to operate for another
10. In other words, they figured it’d be okay to
run these reactors for 50 years, even tho’ they
were designed to last 30. It’s no surprise that
these ‘cash cows’ are NOT decommissioned when
they should be – since, apparently, greed trumps
common sense.

Obviously, the tsunami could have damaged a
brand new facility just as easily, but it brings
to light the reckless, profit-driven mentality
of these big Energy Suppliers. THIS material,
above all others, offers a particularly nasty
consequence ‘when’ handled unsafely. And frankly
-- if you look historically at the unconscious
behavior we humans exhibit -- it is always WHEN,
not IF.

As a young man, I worked a grunt job for a
spell at a reactor that was under construction.
We’d actually sit inside the empty reactor core
and eat our lunches. I saw first-hand some of
the corners cut in the name of deadlines and
budgets. These plants are built by regular ol’
carpenters, electricians, welders, etc. Not by
elite MIT engineers. And inspectors, who are
under pressure to keep things moving, sign off
on deviations from the design specs (not always
consulting the engineers), just as they do at
every construction site. Difference is: when the
plumbing breaks in your house, you suffer a
little stain on the rug and have it repaired the
next day. Honestly, would you hire, say, an
average bio lab technician to set up a lab to
house virus strains SO deadly that a single
mishap could potentially kill millions of
people? As competent as they may be, they are
not equipped to do this particular job, IMHO.
Remember, these nuke plants house many thousands
of times more radioactive material than the
Hiroshima atomic bomb.

Anyway, the whole Fukushima event was tearing
at me, so being a composer that has always used
songwriting as an outlet for my feelings, I once
again turned to music to express myself.
With videographing help from my friend Ron
Dalton, we slapped together this little video.

Please, give this issue some of your time. I
could recommend various sources of information,
but a good one-stop source would be
The Rocky Mountain
Institute, headed up by the
aforementioned Amory Lovins. Check it out!